Giant Traveling Map of the Pacific Ocean Available for Loan Soon

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The vast blue depths of the Pacific Ocean await students’ inquiring minds and adventurous spirits! Beginning in October 2011, this new Giant Traveling Map will introduce students to the marvels of the planet’s largest ocean, which occupies over one third of Earth’s surface. Students will learn how the Pacific has been both a barrier and a highway throughout human history. They will explore the deepest place on earth - the Mariana Trench - as well as the world's tallest mountain (measured from the seabed), Hawai'i's Mauna Kea. Most of all, students will experience the Pacific as a living thing: active volcanoes giving birth to new islands, deep-sea vents supporting unique life forms, phytoplankton blooms providing over half of the planet’s fresh air, and the Great Barrier Reef – the largest living structure in the world.

Accompanying the Giant Traveling Pacific Ocean map are activities and props for teachers to lead students in kindergarten through grade 8 on enriching and fun explorations. Whether they are tracking a whale migration, acting out the movement of El Niño, tracing the routes of Polynesian seafarers, or circling the “Ring of Fire,” students will be supplied with accurate and compelling information cards, lavish photography, as well as several props, including cultural artifacts, geological models, large foam dice, colored cones, and colored hoops. The map measures approximately 26’ x 35’ and will be available starting October 3, 2011.

Also available are Giant Traveling Maps of Africa, Asia, North America, and South America. Maps book quickly, so it is recommended that you submit a request early. To request a map and find more information, visit www.nationalgeographic.com/giantmaps.

National Geographic Giant Traveling Maps are enormously entertaining and educationally powerful tools for introducing geography and map reading skills to students, grades K-8. What better way to teach young people the power of maps and the limitless depth of geography than a basketball court-sized map of a continent on which they can explore, travel from country to country, hop around, compete, collaborate and have lots of fun?

National Geographic’s Giant Traveling Maps, produced by National Geographic Live, tour the country’s schools, bringing hands- and feet-on geography education to 300,000 students each year. Designed to promote geographic literacy by igniting interest in geography, the maps and accompanying activities incorporate physical movement and games to teach students place names, physical geography, and cultural geography as well as map reading skills. These floor maps of Africa, Asia, North America, and South America are available for loan, each accompanied by a complete teacher guide, activities, game props, and educational resources. Visit http://www.nationalgeographic.com/giantmaps for more information about the maps and how to reserve one now for your school.

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